Netanyahu asks Obama to pardon Israeli spy

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has asked Barack Obama to pardon an American who spied for the Jewish state.

Jonathan Pollard (L) has sent a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu asking him to openly make an official request for his releasePhoto: AP/EPA

11:48PM GMT 04 Jan 2011

Mr Netanyahu told parliament on Tuesday evening that he received a letter from Jonathan Pollard asking him to openly make an official request for his release.

The letter, read out by Mr Netanyahu, said: "Honourable president, in the name of the Israeli people I am turning to you to request a pardon for Jonathan Pollard.

"At the time of his arrest Jonathan was acting as an agent of the government of Israel, although Israel did not in any way direct its intelligence efforts against the United States.

"(Israel) acted mistakenly and totally unacceptably," he added. "Both Mr Pollard and the government of Israel have repeatedly expressed their regret at these actions and Israel will keep to its pledge that such things will never happen again."

In Washington, a White House official confirmed receipt of the message and said they would review it.

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Pollard, a former US Navy analyst, is serving a life sentence for passing thousands of secret documents about American spy activities in the Arab world to Israel between May 1984 and his arrest in November 1985.

The issue of Pollard, a US-born Jew who was given Israeli citizenship while in prison, has been a thorn in the side of relations between Israel and its main ally Washington.

His arrest sparked a crisis in ties that only ended with Israel promising to end all espionage activities on US soil.

But Israelis say Pollard's punishment and the long-standing US refusal to commute his sentence have been particularly harsh, given that he gave information to a friendly nation.